Fatwax

as will the days of top flight football for better or worse, as you say In the long run healthy financial status is way much important than big money buys! Fat Fred is one of the main reasons why we're fighting against the relegation every season now and the current global financial crisis haven't helped us one bit. No, the reason we're fighting relegation is because of this current regime. They have had 4 transfer windows to improve us and are now on their 3rd manager who they have driven to another triple heart bypass. We may have been on the edge near the end of the last board, but it's this one that's deciding to push us over the edge.

To be fair he has been out for a while with a broken toe. He scored two goals in his reserve debut (I think that's right) then broke it. I reckon if he hadn't he'd be getting more of a look in under Houghton anyway.

I didn't see him in Spain, but 9 goals in 21 games is a pretty excellent goals to games ratio. Out of interest what makes you think he couldn't be a prolific goal scorer if given the chance? I suppose he could be but from what I saw of him in La Liga he was more of a target man striker with his back to goal that brought others into play. It's worth bearing in mind that 3 of his 9 goals came in his first game for Depor last season. The team played better with him in it though generally and looked more of a threat.

decent at best? He looked f***ing class last season, even at 21 Yep. He wasn't - and probably never will be - a prolific goalscorer, but he was really good at bringing others into play and using his strength to cause problems with the oppositions defence. EDIT - After a quick look I found this article on Guillem Balague's website that came out when we signed him: http://www.guillembalague.com/blog_desp.php?id=66&titulo=Newcastle:%20Xisco%20under%20the%20spotlight It pretty much backs up what I've said about him and yes I do watch La Liga.

Pretty sure we had just as many under Sam as anyone else. Yeah we did. It started off promising but then the 'injury crisis' hit. Another major issue is our complete lack of depth in our squad. If we had more players of a decent quality we wouldn't feel it as much when it inevitably comes around. I'm with Skirge and I reckon that there are certain individuals who just put it on.

He's been the physio for a team that has spent the past decade at the top of the injury league table. He is s***. I mean just look at the fat b******. What has his weight got to do with the fact that he's a physio? Injuries come from improper training 9 times out of 10. The problem will stem from either the training ground or the coaching before it comes from the physios, all they do is rehabilitate the players from injuries picked up. Hardly their fault if managers choose to rush players back instead of easing them in.

Was it not 6.5, as we had to pay his loyalty bonus as he resfused to leave man city otherwise. I think man city were refusing to pay it due to his "problems". Yeah it was something like that but I can't remember the actual fee. I think he had a release clause but we ended up paying £500k over that to cover the loyalty bonus or something.

I'm not bothered about 'Duke' to be honest. I'm more excited about having some CMs back.

I'm not making excuses for him at all. My argument is that Ashley has had plenty of time to sort us out since then and the only consistency has been his ability to f*** up chance after chance. Try using a bit of logic sometime. Pointing out where Keegan is to blame is not making excuses for anyone else. Try following your own advice. Pointing out that Ashley has made a bad situation much worse is not making excuses for Keegan.

So not Shola then.

I'm not making excuses for him at all. My argument is that Ashley has had plenty of time to sort us out since then and the only consistency has been his ability to fuck up chance after chance.

People only say Keegan left us in the s*** because of what went on after. Keegan didn't appoint JFK, Keegan didn't offer him an extended contract, Keegan wasn't the one who decided not to appoint a full-time manager and get on with things. Keegan isn't the one who has tried to gamble our Premiership future by cutting costs and not re-investing in the first team in January when we needed it. No, I was of the opinion that Keegan had left us in the lurch by leaving at the worst possible time, at the time. Keegan, is a principled football man, he wasnt going to stick around ashleys circus, once he found out what they were up to. Are you happy with what they are up to? No. But that doesn't alter the fact that KK left us in the lurch at the worst possible time. When is the best possible time? End of the season. People would have still moaned that we had to spend time looking for a new manager while we should be out getting players. Ashley and his munters have had ample time to steady the ship. Its heading for an epic FAIL. Ashley making bad decisions later does not absolve Keegan of anything. They're both to blame. Fan overreaction to Keegan's departure has been another part of the problem. Nobody (except probably CP40 ) is claiming that Keegan is blameless.. but during the aftermath I think that Ashley has come out much, much worse than Keegan. Ashley has fucked up constantly since infact. Wasted a transfer window Poor appointment in JFK Giving him a contract until the end of the season Going on to offer him a 2 year deal (this has been confirmed by Llambtits I believe) Spinning off constant lies through JFK. One minute we're not carrying any debt, next there's no money to spend, next we're still paying off previous players.. there's no consistency at all with what's being said. If all it takes to decide to sell up is a protest at a game then he really needs to invest in a backbone. How the hell did he expect us to react?

Trouble is that ability doesn't count for much if you're never in a position to use it. I think we got a very good deal with the money for Parker, but after all the crap that Barton has brought on this club I feel like we've been cockslapped with the 5.8m we paid for him.. it was about that I think?

He hasn't had a full season there yet. He's got plenty of time to show what he can do and most probably will. I'm not sure if he's worth £30m or not but I'm sure Fergie knows a bit more than me on the subject.

People only say Keegan left us in the s*** because of what went on after. Keegan didn't appoint JFK, Keegan didn't offer him an extended contract, Keegan wasn't the one who decided not to appoint a full-time manager and get on with things. Keegan isn't the one who has tried to gamble our Premiership future by cutting costs and not re-investing in the first team in January when we needed it. No, I was of the opinion that Keegan had left us in the lurch by leaving at the worst possible time, at the time. Keegan, is a principled football man, he wasnt going to stick around ashleys circus, once he found out what they were up to. Are you happy with what they are up to? No. But that doesn't alter the fact that KK left us in the lurch at the worst possible time. When is the best possible time? End of the season. So Keegan isn't happy with how things are being run and decides to walk, but he'll wait until the end of the season to do so.. How could that possibly work? There'd be another power struggle in the January transfer window, there'd be a bias in player selection which would cause a rift amongst the squad and some players would inevitably stop respecting him since he wouldn't be around for much longer anyway. It'd also lead to another transition season since things such as playing staff and coaching staff would change at the end of the season again.

People only say Keegan left us in the s*** because of what went on after. Keegan didn't appoint JFK, Keegan didn't offer him an extended contract, Keegan wasn't the one who decided not to appoint a full-time manager and get on with things. Keegan isn't the one who has tried to gamble our Premiership future by cutting costs and not re-investing in the first team in January when we needed it. No, I was of the opinion that Keegan had left us in the lurch by leaving at the worst possible time, at the time. Keegan, is a principled football man, he wasnt going to stick around ashleys circus, once he found out what they were up to. Are you happy with what they are up to? No. But that doesn't alter the fact that KK left us in the lurch at the worst possible time. When is the best possible time? It was at the beginning of the season, we could have easily turned things around if Ashley had approached the situation differently.

Not knee-jerking or anything of course. People said the same kinda thing about Robinho after the 2-2 draw at our place. One game hardly defines a player.

Barton is better than Parker. In theory, yeah. Parker doesn't get into nearly enough shit as Barton does though and is no way near as injury prone.

it wasn't the tackle on Bullard that changed him, it was being made captain. Our midfield was affected more by the loss of Dyer and Solano than Parker.

Capdevilla, who's getting on a bit. Don't think Spain have been blessed with a lot of depth in the LB position so he may have a decent chance. The fact that he plays for Newcastle might hurt him a bit though How's Del Horno getting on these days? Don't think he's getting a game for Valencia seeing how I haven't heard his name uttered in the past year or so. Was kinda forgetting that he existed actually. Yeah he kinda dropped off the radar a bit.

Capdevilla, who's getting on a bit. Don't think Spain have been blessed with a lot of depth in the LB position so he may have a decent chance. The fact that he plays for Newcastle might hurt him a bit though How's Del Horno getting on these days?

Brilliant link up between Lovenkrands & Martins.

If we are relegated, Souness will have been one of the main culprits despite the fact that he is now almost 5 years removed from the club. As much as I dislike Souness I think thats harsh. Mainly because Ashley/Keegan/Wise/Lambias/whoever you blame for what happened had the chance to atone for the mistakes he made, and we were doing, butwe messed it up in a far bigger way than anything Souness was ever responsible for. You're right, but on the other hand we wouldn't have had to appoint Roeder and then Allardyce if Souness hadn't been appointed and £50m was wasted on signings that were terrible for us in hindsight. Of course the whole thing is theoretical but if we had got in a good quality manager he could have been able to keep the current team together and improve on it and push us on. You know all of this already of course.

I hate yourself for even suggesting it too.